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The mafia is blood in, blood out.
But since this family will no longer be what they were promised in the beginning, I’m giving them a chance to break off, start a new family if they want. There will be no fully getting out of the life. And no one will take shit with them if they choose to go. All operations and businesses stay in this family. If any of the men want out, they can go, but they’ll be starting from the ground up.
“Gentlemen,” I say as I stand at the front of the long table with the leaders of our family, including our capos—minus Stefano. “This has been a long time coming. And I’m going to make this extremely simple on everyone involved…”
Although I’ve gone over in my head what I want and need to say, for some reason, as I look around at men I’ve thought of as brothers for as long as I can remember, I feel like I don’t really, truly know many of them.
“The old way of doing things is over. I’ve started to make amends and join forces with some of our old enemies that we now share common wants and needs with. The DeSantis Family is going to become an ally in the near future. The strips on the south side of our territory where we’ve gone to war over weaponry with various gangs… I’m going to start repairing that relationship as well.
“There is something to be said about working jointly with others who hold a great deal of power. And while Gabriel tried to do everything on his own, to gain every ounce of power he could for himself and himself only—not for any of you—I think we can work smarter instead of harder and build trusting allyships with people we’ve wronged in the past.
“And the future of this family is going to look different than it once did. You’ll either stand with us, or you’ll go out and build a new family of your own, and it will be a clean break. You will not be allowed to join any existing families. You can either stay with us and get fucking used to a new way of life, or you can branch out and form something new. The choice is yours,” I say, looking around at the men.
“But you’ll decide today. And then we will put a plan in place as to how to move forward. None of our old ways of doing things are being carried over. This is why you’ll be allowed the clean break. Allyships, deals, contracts… Everything will need to be redone accordingly.”
My phone goes off in my pocket, and I silence it as a few of the men start talking amongst themselves.
“This isn’t a fucking group project, fellas. Decide for yourselves, for your families, if you’re staying or going, and then Pietro and I can speak to you about next steps.”
Dom and Matteo sit next to each other, and Matteo nudges Dom.
“Yeah, guess I’m staying. You’re a lot prettier than our other boss,” Dom says with a laugh, and I want to fucking gut punch the sick bastard.
I look over at the rest of the men and can already see a divide happening. I just fucking hope our weapons stay holstered because I’m not in the mood to kill anyone today.
* * *
My phone continuesto go off as the men speak to Pietro and me about staying or leaving. To my surprise, so far we’ve only lost six men. A majority want to stay and are down for the change I’m going to enact.
I step outside to finally take the call because I have a feeling whoever it is isn’t going to lay the fuck off. It’s a blocked number, but they’ve called three times in a row.
“Niccolò Amato,” I answer, letting the bastard, whoever it is, know I’m not going to hide like a coward like they are.
At first, a rustling noise fills the earpiece, almost as if someone is crinkling paper, but then his voice pierces through the line.
“I’ve got eyes and ears everywhere in that fucking city, Niccolò,” Gabriel’s deep voice booms through the speaker.
God fucking damn. I wasn’t ready to have this conversation yet. But I guess here we fucking go.
“Don’t think I’m not privy to what went down at Monty’s…the hospital. The fucking bank. Where is Stefano? What’ve you done? I turn over command to you, and in less than a few days, you’ve already started fucking everything to hell. What the fuck happened to my respectful, well-trained son I left in charge? Who fucking got to you?”
He lets out a long, breathy scoff, and I look around the busy street as if someone may be watching me right at this very second.
Respectful and well-trained. The man is a fucking sociopath.
“You ran, Gabriel. You ran away like a scared little boy and appointed me, and if I’m going to be the boss of this family, I’m doing shit in my own way. I’m not carrying on your fucked-up traditions and ways of conducting business. You didn’t really think I’d just keep shit the way you’ve had it forever, did you? Maybe you did. I can play the game pretty fucking good. Learned from the best.”
“You little fucking rat,” Gabriel says, and I can hear the ocean waves in the distance from the speaker.
Pussy. Ran away to the fucking ocean when things got tough.
“It’s about fucking time this family starts to see that not everything needs to be a goddamn bloodbath. We can sit down like men, real men, and come to terms with our enemies. It could make things a hell of a lot easier.”
“Bullshit!” he screams. “That’s fucking bullshit.”
“Is it, though?” I ask as a car runs a red light, nearly missing a pedestrian heading my way across the street. Fucking Chicago drivers. “Is it bullshit to try and handle my business? Is it better to have to run away when shit gets tough? You know, fucking run like a coward like you did? How long you going to stay in hiding? Forever? The cartel has eyes and ears everywhere too, old man.”
“You ungrateful little prick,” Gabriel whisper-shouts, and I can just see him now, practically foaming at the mouth, wishing he could get his hands on me through the phone. “I didn’t raise you to be such a disobedient bastard.”
